1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a magazine for an automatic weapon, especially for utilization in connection with caseless ammunition.
The recoil forces of an automatic weapon affect the handling of the weapon and the oscillation of the weapon barrel so that a known automatic weapon of this kind has a relatively wide scatter of hit pattern. In addition automatic weapons are inclined to kick-up, against the restraining forces (i.e. from round-to-round). An attempt is made to counteract the unrestrained effect of such a stepwise increase in elevation, i.e. kick-up, by limiting the number of rounds either automatically or by gunner intervention. This is, however, possible only to a limited extent because long bursts of fire are also usual. Such long bursts of fire are usually a waste of ammunition.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A conventional automatic weapon recoils along a damping path each time a round is fired. This recoil-damping path can be from a few millimeters up to a few centimeters long. After the recoil damping movement, the weapon is again returned to the basic position.
The ammunition feed transport and the ammunition feed are thus usually in a defined position. In such cases, the magazine or the magazine belt feed is usually also fixed.
For an automatic weapon, especially for caseless ammunition where the weapon can move linearly in its axial longitudinal direction in a housing, enabling the weapon to recoil unrestrained along a relatively long recoil path determined and limited by a recoil damper as described in copending German Patent Application No. DE 10 2005 026 978.8-15, a fixed magazine or a belt feed of this kind would mean that a complete magazine, together with all of the ammunition, would always have to travel back with the weapon. With a belt feed, it would be possible for the ammunition belt to be dragged backwards and forwards in great loops.